Fiction By Sonali Senthil

Demiri jumped off the bus, and onto her green lawn. She ran to her front door, her black hair with teal ends flying in the wind. She unlocked her door, ran up to her room, and took out her special spy notebook, her invisible ink pen and ran down to her sister’s pink and furry bedroom. She padded across her sisters fluffy carpet and started a new entry in her notebook:                                                                                                                                                            

Time: 1630 hours

Place: Naterries’s room

Mission: find out where she goes every day at 1700 hours

Just then, Naterrie walked into her room, gossiping on her phone. “Anyway, gotta go to work”, she said, ending the call.

Under the bed, Demiri almost gasped. Naterrie had a job?! Demiri put her head out a little bit to see what was going on. Unfortunately, Naterrie had caught her ankle and screamed”MOOOM, DEMIRI’S SPYING AGAIN!!!!”

A few minutes later, Demiri sat sulking on her bed. Why couldn’t her family accept her dreams of being a spy?

Demiri stared grumpily out of the car window. It had all begun only two months ago, but now she was on the way to the worst place ever, summer camp.

It had started in school. When she was seen hovering outside the teacher’s staffroom, she was accused of trying to cheat on her tests, when in reality, she was spying to see if the rumors were true. That evening she was caught again, under her sister’s bed.

Events like this kept happening, until her parents decided that this was the last straw. If she was caught spying again, she would get punished. Of course, she couldn’t help herself, and she was caught with her ear against a glass against her parent’s door.

So now she was getting punished. But instead of being normal parents and taking her laptop away or grounding her, they were sending her to summer camp. Even though she had only been once before, she hated it. No friends. Nobody to spy with. Nobody to spy on.

Demiri lay back and smiled. Camp was bad, but it had just gotten better.

When in the morning,the camp instructor had announced the schedule for the day, and flower arranging was first, Demiri sneaked away, and two girls asked to go to the bathroom. Five minutes later, they were all sitting in the big oak tree.

“My name is Demiri”, Demiri said. “What are your names?”

“I’m Catizza”, said the girl with the shortest hair “and she is Nipra “, pointing at the girl with bangs.

“Hi!” said Nipra. ”I like your hair!”

10 minutes later, they discovered that they had a lot in common. All of them were tomboys, liked reading, eating, and most importantly…spying!

Of course, Demiri was delighted to hear this, and they all decided to spy on people at camp, just to pass the time.

Demiri lay in bed, thinking about what they could do tomorrow, and then she fell asleep.

The next morning Demiri woke up , leapt out of bed and toke shower and ran to cabin B , her new friend’s cabin. When she slowly opened the creaky door, she found that nobody was there. She ran to the dining area, and found all the cabin B girls there. She walked over to the food table, picked up an apple and ran over to whereNipra and Catizza were sitting.

“Hey guys”, she said. “Why is everyone up so early?”

“Well…” said Catizza. It started off with Bitty brining her phone to camp. Then suddenly, in the middle of the night, she screamed”

“Really high pitched”, added Nipra.

“And then we all woke up, and she told us the news.”

“Which was: the president has been kidnapped, and the government had found a ransom note.”

“Then a camp instructor came in and told Bitty to go outside for her punishment”

“And we haven’t seen Bitty since”, finished Nipra.

“If you ask me” said Demiri, “It all sounds a bit fishy. My sister came here last year, and they were allowed to bring phones. Also on the Camp Thorn website, it said phones were allowed.”

“Yeah, but they sent an email that said no phones the day before we left for camp”, pointed out Nipra.

“Guys, I think that the instructors are involved in the kidnapping. I’ll meet you at your cabin at 3000 hours so we can discuss this.”

That night at 3000 hours, only 3 people were awake in camp Thorn.

“Demiri are you surethat the instructors are involved?” asked Catizza doubtfully.

“Yes! Don’t you see?’’, said Demiri urgently. “All the clues add up: Bitty gone, the instructors so called trip to get food and the creepy cabin we saw in the woods yesterday!”

“Ok… “saidNipra “So what do we do now?”

“We monitor the instructors obviously!” said Demiri

So that was what they did that day. They followed the instructors around and listened to their every word.

“Guys I don’t think this working”, said Nipra during lunch. “The instructors are just doing normal camp stuff”

“I agree with Nipra” said Catizza. ”Do you have any other ideas”.

“Watch and learn Catizza!” said Demiri with a playful wink.

Demiri strolled over to the water station, grabbed a cup ,filled it  with water, walked over to where they were sitting and placed the cup on the table. ”This is the answer” she said.

“Huh?” asked Nipra and Catizza

“Well, if you place a cup to a wall, you can hear anything that the people inside are talking about.”

“Oh”, they replied

“Also I think this a one girl mission. Who should go?”

“You go. You’re the most experienced.”

That night, Demiri jumped out of her cabin window, landed on the grass below like a cat, and creeped over to the instructor’s cabin, wearing her pjs and flip-flops. This was something she had learnt long ago: do not EVER wear special spy clothes, or you will not be able to come up with a good alibi.in these clothes, she could pretend to be a camper needing water.

Demiri placed the cup against the cabin wall, shivering in the cool night breeze. She took a deep breath, placed her ear against the cup and hoped she wouldn’t screw this up.

“Once the ministers pay the ransom, we are set for life and we can get out of here!” said an instructor in the cabin.

Ok that’s it.  I’ve heard enough, thought Demiri running back to her cabin, only stopping to return the cup to the kitchen.

As soon as the instructor turned off the lights the next day, said good night and shut the door, Demiri set her alarm for midnight, and lay on her rock hard bed. A few hours later, the alarm went, BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ, and Demiri woke up, jumped out of bed, landing on the floor with the grace of a cat. She tiptoed over to her suitcase, got out her backpack and opened the door of the peaceful cabin soundlessly. Good thing I remembered to put butter on the hinges! She thought.

Back in cabin B, Nipra and Catizza jumped out of bed, landed on the cold cabin floor and grabbed their backpacks. They ran to the door, and started to open it.CRREEEAAAK, protested the door.

“Nipra...” said Catizza “did you bring the butter on the bread for the door?”

“Yeah!” replied Nipra. “But I got hungry…”

“So you ate it?”

“Uh-huh”

“Fine let’s go through the window.”

So they tiptoed over to the window, gently opened it and jumped into the cold night. Then they silently ran over their meeting place, the big oak tree, where Demiri was waiting.

Brrr…, thought Demiri, looking up at the oak. In the day it looks so friendly, spreading out its branches, encouraging people to climb on it, and sit in the shade under it, but at night it ,looks like a big monster reaching its arms out to grab me… “Silly!” Demiri scolded herself. “Spies can’t be scared so neither can you!”

A minute later, they were all grouped under the tree.

“So where do you think the president has been hidden?” asked Catizza stupidly, not using the code word tnediserp. Just as Nipra began to yell at Catizza, Demiri stopped her. “Shush! I think someone is coming!”

The same thing began rushing through their head: emergency protocol if we get caught, or EPIWGC. They were supposed to be innocent girls needing the bathroom, but got scared and lost.

Suddenly, the instructors swooped around them like hawks, and grabbed their arms.

“What are you doing!” asked Nipra “We were only going to the bathroom.”

“We know what you’re really doing”, grunted an instructor. “And we are keeping you out of the way until we get the ransom money for our hostage”

The instructors’ frog marched them to their cabin, which was a literal fortress, with only a door and a tiny window. They opened the door of the cabin, opened a small closet, tied them up and shoved the trio into a small closet that smelt of detergent and sweat.

It isn’t fair, thought Demiri, I can’t be a good spy. MaybeI’m not meant to be one. But I’m not giving up. Time for a new mission. Mission escape.

Demiri looked around the closet but saw nothing that would help them. “Nipra?” asked Demiri.

“Yeah?” Nipra responded.

“Can you reach my bag?”

“Yeah, but my hands are tied up.”

“So use your mouth and get out my multitool”

Now Demiri’s multi-tool was one of her most prized possessions. It had an array of knives, scissors, and tweezers. But the serrated knife was what she wanted now.

“Uy air e uck!!” cried Nipra.

“What?” asked Catizza.

“E aid uy air e uck!!”

“Your hair is stuck?”

“ES!”

And it was. Nipra’s hair was caught in the zip of demiri’s bag, and it would not get out.

“Well, do you have the multi-tool? “Demiri asked.

“Es, it ese n y moth”

“So give it to me.”

“Ere” said Nipra, spitting it out onto the floor next to Demiri.

Demiri picked up the multi-tool and started cutting through her ropes that bound her hands, then her feet. She then quickly cut Catizza free, and they both stood up and stretched. ”now Catizza go free Nipra and I’ll find a way for us to escape.” Said Demiri.

The window is too small for us to jump out of. Maybe the door is unlocked, Demiri thought, jiggling the doorknob. Locked. But wait! There was one last glimmer of hope. Was the key in the keyhole…Lo and behold, luck and fallen upon them.

Demiri knelt on the floor, rummaging through her bag until she found a sheet of newspaper. Then she slid the newspaper under the door, slowly poked the key out until it landed with a plop on the newspaper. She slid the newspaper under the door again, inserted the key inti the keyhole and whispered, “Guys, we’re out!”

They put on their bags, stepped out of the closet and into the stuffy cabin, full of sleeping instructors.so slowly they tip-toed across the room, until Catizza who had the key whispered, “Demiri…”. Shush! came the answer.

Finally, they reached the door. Nipra opened it, and they stepped out into the night.

“Demiri…” asked Catizza.

“Not now!” Demiri replied.

“But…”

“Ok fine! What is it?”

“I think this is a skeleton key.”

Demiri stopped dead. “A what?”

“A skeleton key!”

“Which means…” said Nipra, “we can lock them in”

Catizza ran over to the door and locked it. “Mission accomplished” she said, running back.

“Ok, so now we’ve escaped. Now what? “asked Catizza.

“We find the president of course! I see the cabin.” replied Demiri.

“Turn on your flashlights!’’

A few minutes later, they were all in front of the cabin. “President Rosalind?” called Demiri, her voice echoing.

“If you are those brutal instructors I am not coming out.” came the reply.

“We are not the instructors”, Demiri said, motioning for Catizza to see if the key fit the lock. Click! Nipra pushed open the door and they all entered, to find the president pacing around the cabin.

“Why, you’re nothing more than 12!” exclaimed the president, looking at the three girls that stood in the doorway of the cabin.

“I’m Demiri” Demiri said, “And these are my friends, Nipra and Catizza. We’ve come to rescue you.”

“And why should I trust you?”

“Because we are your last hope.”

“And what is your plan of escape?” asked Rosalind.

“Well, first we camp in the cabin till the day. Then we make our way to south Dara, our home, and you head to the capital.”

So the four of them exited the small cabin, locked the door and headed to a small clearing 20 feet away. Once they reached the clearing, Demiri said, “I’ll set up my tent for the president, and you set up your tent for us, Nipra and Catizza.”

5 minutes later, the girls stepped back to admire their work. “Let’s go to bed now”, said Catizza, yawning. So they went into their tents, and feel asleep the moment they entered their sleeping bags.

The next morning, the trio were awake even before the sun rose. Demiri was folding up the tent, Catizza was starting a fire, and Nipra had gone to wake up the president.

Finally, as the sky turned pink, they were all packed, fed and ready to go. “Ok so this is where we are” said demiri, drawing a dot on her map.” “And this is south Dara. So we have to go east.”

“What are we waiting for!” said Nipra. “Let’s go!”

Finally, three hours later, they were all standing at the edge of the forest with the president just behind them.

“Now to find a police station” said Demiri, unfolding the map. “There is one not too far away, just a mile.”

The next hour, the young policeman outside the police station’s jaw dropped. Was that the president and 3 young girls standing on the doorstep? He rubbed his eyes and looked again. They were still there, and now they were asking them where they could find the head inspector.

“He’s over there “he managed to stammer.

“Good gravy!” the head inspector exclaimed when they entered his office. “President you must return to the capital at once.” He pressed a button on his desk, and an officer walked in. “Officer, please escort the president to the capital. Now, what can I do for you girls?”

Once they had finished telling the story, the inspector called all his forces to his office. He gave them the mission, and a few minutes later, a procession of police cars were making their way to Camp Thorn.

As the cars drew up to the camp, everybody jumped out if the car, and Demiri began leading the way to the instructor’s cabin. Catizza handed the keys to the police officer, and they went in the cabin and returned with the instructors handcuffed. “We’ll get you!” hissed one of the instructors.

“No you won’t “said Demiri “You’ll be having a nice vacation-in jail!”

With that other campers began coming out of their cabins, including Bitty. “What happened?” Bitty asked

“Well…” started Demiri, beginning the story.

LETTER FROM DEMIRI TO NIPRA AND CATIZZA AFTER SHE GOT ACCEPTED TO SPY SCHOOL( BLACK THINGS ARE CLASSIFED)

Dear Nipra and Catizza,

How are you? I’m really having fun at my new school. I’m going on my first mission tomorrow. I

I just realized that if I had stopped spying when everybody told me to, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I think what I am trying to say is that you should never give up on your dreams. So Catizza, I hope that one day you can own a big candy factory, and Nipra, I hope to see your name across bookshops one day. And I hope that one day I become the greatest around.

Farwell and see you soon,

 or Demiri